Well, I am glad that things are still progressing nicely. After all, I did say in an earlier review that I am now in the range of the final ten episodes of FUNimation's second season of Detective Conan (Case Closed), and I can probably guess that you guys want me to get to the episode that were never broadcasted on Adult Swim. Today, I am going to review Case Closed episode 44 (Detective Conan episode 43).

As I have given a series synopsis in an earlier post, I will not go over it again.

After the murder case at the karaoke party got resolved, it seems that Jimmy, Rachel, and Richard finally have some time relax. Because of this, Rachel starts asking Jimmy about his parents, not knowing that Jimmy is reason Richard's gig as a detective has been going well.

A few moments later, a woman comes claiming to be Conan's mother. While Jimmy does not recognize her, she seems to know everything about Jimmy, making him think she is affiliated with the Black Organization. However, she is not alone and her accomplice even has a case filled with APTX 4869, though it still does not have a name at this point in the series. Jimmy seems to have stumbled upon a big lead, but he must survive and outwit his captors.

I enjoyed this episode. While there really was not any case to be seen, like the incident involving Vodka in volumes 37 and 38 of the manga, my attention was definitely held. Although I did remember this incident, I did not remember enough of it that I think I can say how obvious thing were. In that regard, things really were not that obvious. What was obvious, on the other hand, did not make things worse. In fact, it made things a bit more exciting. It was even surprising that his captors were a few steps ahead of him, since Jimmy failed in making both of his captors think that he had escaped. Other than Black Org members, the only person that comes to mind that has been ahead of Jimmy at some point is KID, who only knows that Jimmy and Conan are the same person in the movie series. Speaking of KID, after having read his series, Magic Kaito, I liked how one of the clues featured the year 1988, which according to Baka-Updates Manga is the date that the series Magic Kaito debuted. Unless that series runs like Detective Conan, it does not surprise me that Kaito Kuroba, whom I have said is the current KID in my review of manga volume 34, is the same age as Jimmy. After all, there is only one more case involving Black Org before KID is introduced, both of which are going to be covered this year. I also liked how Jimmy did not let his guard down throughout most of the episode. If he had, he would have most likely been a goner, since kidnappers do not usually return their hostage alive, even when their demands met. However, the fact that they did not ask for a ransom certainly did suggest that they were part of Black Org, though they were not wearing black, which Jimmy found out about in the manga counterpart of episode 13 (Japanese count) was a characteristic of the members of Gin and Vodka's syndicate. Another nice thing was that this was very faithful to its manga counterpart. Like episodes 39 and 40 (Japanese count), everything I saw happened in the manga counterpart. This is certainly a improvement over that last episode, considering that the cuts made there just made things worse. I certainly wish that the series stayed this consistent, even if the cases happen in a different order in the manga than they do in the anime. The fact that this was very exciting and that Jimmy finally had some worthy opponents certainly makes this a great episode.

Although I did enjoy the episode, there are certainly some issues. Even though this seems to be an incident involving Black Org, it is not. Since this was very faithful to the manga counterpart, I have to blame Gosho for this issue. I was pumped up, even to this day, because Jimmy had a possible lead and Gosho decides to ruin it by introducing some new characters. If I had not known that Haibara was responsible for keeping Jimmy alive, I would have had a lot to complain about this. After all, most of the cases that seem to involve Black Org do, in fact, have some kind of connection with them. Still, it did ruin much the excitement to find out the people behind everything were not really part of Black Org, which obviously means that the people did not really have APTX 4869 on them. Also, there were not really any funny parts to be seen here. While not always bad, the scene that probably would have been funny just was not remotely that funny. I thought that Jimmy was going to die, even though I knew he know would not. I can overlook the fact that this was not a case involving Black Org, but I want things that are actually funny, not some toy ammo in a gun right after some tense moments. Of course, Gosho cannot be blamed for everything. While I did say that this was very faithful to its manga counterpart, there were some changes. When Rachel brings up Jimmy's parents, though she does not know Jimmy and Conan are the same person, Richard speaks of a surprise for Jimmy and then Rachel opens the door to the person that claims to be Conan's mother as if they knew each other. However, in the manga, they do not mention a surprise and Rachel does not expect the visitor. According to Detective Conan World, Richard and Rachel do not mention a surprise for Jimmy or expect the visitor in the Japanese version of this episode either. Since the Japanese version is supposedly the same as the manga counterpart, I can only say that it looks like FUNimation has made an error in the dub, though not as bad as episode 31 (Japanese count), which I could only guess due to a conflict in the various English translations of the manga counterpart, and an episode that will be covered soon. However, considering that this is not major, I will just label it as a minor issue. While FUNimation seems to have messed with some things, the only thing that could do damage is that fact that I was led to believe this was something involving Black Org, when it turned out to not be the case.

Despite the fact that the Black Org was not involved, the episode was exciting enough that this was definitely worth watching. I recommend this to fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction, as well as fans of Detective Conan (Case Closed). As for everyone else, this seems like a nice introduction to the series, as well as the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres in general.

What are your thoughts on Case Closed episode 44? Do you agree or disagree with my views? Do you have anything to add? Feel free to comment.

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